Personal Trials Shaped Prosecutor
Long Before Columbine Shooting

By

Robert Tomsho Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated June 4, 1999 2:07 a.m. ET

LITTLETON, Colo. -- After the April 20 shootings at Columbine High School, the Jefferson County prosecutor appeared to be the sort of figure who has become numbingly familiar in the age of televised tragedy.

Day after day, he trooped before the cameras to talk about his criminal investigation. But one dreary morning, at a picnic shelter near the school, the district attorney replaced his usual update with an almost desperate appeal...